On the 1st of September, 9 intrepid men and women travelled up to The Fens for the 22km Great Ouse Marathon, held between East Norfolk Rowing Club and Isle of Ely Rowing Club along a single un-locked stretch of the Ouse. We had a WMasA 1x (Emily), WMasC 2x (Jackie and Paula), a MxMasC 2x (Aimee and Dan) and an Op4x- (Will, Tim C, Dom and Chris H). The conditions were pretty good, with sunshine and a cross/tail wind and we all set off with enthusiasm. 22km, it turns out, is a really long way. The Ouse has raised banks all the way (so no view) and very few landmarks and the race is the closest thing to a water-based erg that you will find anywhere. I think we all agreed that 1hr 45mins (approx) is a very long time to sit in a rowing seat and we’d all wear more padding if we did it again. But pain is a rower’s regular currency and we got some excellent results. Emily, Aimee and Dan won their events, the quad were the fastest in their division (of 1!), Jackie and Paula came 3rd in a very competitive division but got the best time as a percentage of a theoretical “world’s best time” of all the GRC crews. Once we’d refuelled, and stumbled about for an hour we all seemed to have decided we might do it again – it was a great day out; a very tough event, but with a great atmosphere.

Well worth the trip.